The availability of reliable and heavy-duty accumulator technology is of great significance for future electromobility concepts. While electric motors and other aspects of automotive engineering are already highly advanced in terms of their development and are available in satisfactory levels of quality, accumulator technology is one of the key elements for electromobility. The critical aspects here are, mainly, the storage density, which is directly reflected in the range of the vehicles, and the handling of the energy stores. Given a reasonable overall weight, electrically driven vehicles achieve considerably shorter ranges, due to the limited capacity of the accumulators, than vehicles including an internal combustion engine. In addition, the production costs for electrically driven vehicles are presently still considerably higher than for conventional motor vehicles including an internal combustion engine.
In addition to the increase in the storage density and the simultaneous reduction of the costs, the functional reliability of the batteries is of decisive significance for the comprehensive utilization in the automobile. If there is an internal short circuit of the battery, whether due to mechanical damage or dendrite growth, a controlled discharge of the battery is desirable, so that an uncontrolled energy release may not result in explosions or the development of smoke or flames.
Therefore, it is desirable to create a possibility for carrying out a controlled discharge of the affected accumulator cell in the event of a fault. Previously, thermal/mechanical antifuse approaches, in which long-term stable short circuits are generated, for example, with the aid of pyrotechnics or melting through, were available for this purpose. Electronic options having the required non-volatility are not available so far, however.